“Aside from the equation it draws between making money and being good, the modern ideal of a successful life posits a further linkage between making money and being happy. This latter association rests on … assumptions. First, it is presumed that identifying what will make us happy is not an inordinately difficult task. Just as our bodies typically know what they need in order to be healthy… so, too, the theory goes, can our minds to be relied upon to understand what we should aim for so as to flourish as whole human beings. … Second, it is taken for granted that the enormous range of … consumer goods available to modern civilization is not merely a gaudy, enervating show responsible for stoking desires bearing little relevance to our welfare, but is, rather, a helpful array of potentialities and products, capable of satisfying some of our most important needs.”
Source: Status Anxiety (2004), Chapter 5 (pt.6 27:39).
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Alain de Botton 146
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Source: 60 Years A Priest: An Interview with Archbishop Alfred Hughes https://nds.edu/blog-entry/60-years-a-priest-an-interview-with-archbishop-alfred-hughes/
Source: The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997), Chapter 10, “Lifetimes of Chance” (p. 202)
Tarkan Q & A, Tarkan Translations, April 10, 2003 http://tarkantr.blogspot.com/2005/05/q.html,
“What's the difference between a whore and a congressman? A congressman makes more money.”
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)
An Epic Interview with John Roecker, FilmJerk, www.filmjerk.com, Kristopher, Terrell, August 23, 2003 http://www.filmjerk.com/interviews/article.php?id_int=12,
As quoted in "Fresh Off the Boat Star: I Don't Need to Represent Every Asian Mom Ever" in Time Magazine (10 February 2015) https://time.com/3696111/fresh-off-the-boat-constance-wu/
“People who are in a fortunate position always attribute virtue to what makes them so happy.”
The Guardian [UK] (23 May 1992)
